The Proverb of the Twins of Wealth

[mateolog 1551]

The Proverb of the Twins of Wealth
By Khazaefron, Seer of Hefrumm

 

Foreword and Seer anylisis of the Proverb of Greed

This tale is Inspired by the The Proverb of Greed Written by Bazian Grandaxe [The Proverb of Greed ]. As old as this text is it has many issues that would make someone reading it get the wrong idea of our faith. The most glaring issue is the placement of Armakak as a morally superior Brathmordakin than Grimdugan, which is falso. All Brathmordakin hold to their own sets of codes and ethics, sets which fall under Yemekar’s wider ethical norms. Placing the ethics of one Brathmordakin over the other is wrong. Another issue with the original proverb is the use of the chosen of Grimdugan as a thief that would steal from another dwarf, without the story addressing the issue in a dwarf stealing from another dwarf. Instead, the story condems stealing all together which the dwarven faith does not see as a sin in itself. Another issue is giving the theme of the mines to Armakak instead of Grimdugan. Beyond the present theological stance where Grimdugan is the patron of miners not Armakak, it makes no sense that the brathmordakin of the sun and trade is connected to the collection of minerals. The brathmordakin of shadows, and secret wealth is much better set to be the patron of miners as he is. Another issue is that the story places the worshiper of Grimdugan as someone consumed by greed to the point he dies. The story takes one of the dwarven virtues that pushes our society forward and turns it into something negative.

 

The Proverb of the Twins of Wealth

 

One crisp mountian morning, the two dwarven gods Grimdugan, the Lord of Avarice, and Armakak, the Merchant Father, looked down upon Yemekar's world and saw two young beardlings. Grimdugan turns to his brother and says, "Look at these two brothers run about, they are but a double-edged axe, one is no different than the other. Nothing could be said about these two that is different than the other."

 

Armakak looks down on the world in agreement, he could not refute his brother's claim. Being the rivals that these two brothers are, Grimdugan proposes a challange. "Look brother. Let us wager them so that we may see whom is the master of the mint, true lord of wealth. I will teach the lad Kili as you teach the lad Bili. The lad that has the most coin after three days is the victor."

 

Unable to resist a challenge from his brother, Armakak accepts saying. "Aye brother, you will see that the art of the trade and merchants is the way to earn true wealth."

 

So, on the First day, the two great gods taught the beardlings and prepared them for the next day. Armakak gave Bili a caravan which he used to fill his stall with materials from around the realms. Grimdugan gave Kili an obsidian dagger and a pickaxe. He used the pickaxe to mine deep into the core to find Grimdugan’s treasures and the dagger to both defend himself from thieves and to take from those that he deemed worthy of stealing from. At the beginning Bili was still in debt not having paid what his caravan cost him while Kili had already a chest full of wealth Grimdugan laughed.

"Look brother, my pupil has much more coin than yours, surely you should give up now." Armakak just smiled and said, "Just wait brother and see."

 

[!] Depiction of Kili raiding a trade caravan.

 

On the Second day, Bili went back to the mines and saw Kili and other miners working lining up to go into the mines. Bili started to buy the ores from the miners taking their ores to foreign places where he could charge triple the price for the dwarven ores. Once he had enough money he found a mine and sealed it. Instead of selling the ores he decided he would be selling the access to the mine.

 

On the third day, Kili went to mine but he saw that Bili was charging miners to use the mine. Enraged Kili took the obsidian dagger and threatened Bili “How dare you take the gifts of Grimdugan hostage to sell to your fellow kin? Give me the money you gained from such sinful behaviour” Said Kili pointing his blade at Bili. Bili would push the blade aside with his trade documents “You call my actions despicable? What type of dwed tries to steal from another dwed?” Kili would stab Bili’s table with his blade “You are the one stealing from the dwed through your actions!”

 

[!] Depiction of Kili (left) and Bili (right).

 

As the conversation was getting heated two entities started appearing, one from the shadows of the caves and another from the bright rays of the sun. They both seemed to be laughing at the two brothers “Do not fight lads, you sound like beardlings!” said the voices in unison. It was Grimdugan and Armakak.

 

“It seems that our game has reached its conclusion brother, we would not want these two to become embittered towards each other.” Said Grimdugan.

 

“You are very correct, this game went far enough. Let us see then who is the victor.” Said Armakak.

 

The two dwed stopped their bickering, looking in awe at the Brathmordakin and handing them over all their gains. After counting and recounting they saw that both had reached the same amount of wealth.

 

“Well…that does not answer us at all!” Complained Grimdugan.

 

“Mmmm…” Armakak pondered “perhaps we could toss a coin for it?”

 

Grimdugan laughed “A coin toss? That would answer who is the true Brathmordakin of luck, not who is the true lord of wealth!”

 

“True. But are you not curious to find out anyway?” Answered Armakak

 

Grimdugan looked at the two dwed that were about to gut each other over the competition between him and his brother, hed let out a sigh “Fine…” hed say. “Lets toss that coin.”

 

Armakak would take a golden coin from Bili and a Silver coin from Kili fusing them both into one. Grimdugan called tails and Armakak called heads. They would proceed to toss the coin into the sky and around the sun until it returned and landed on the ground. The coin had landed on heads.

 

Armakak smirked "You see now brother? Diligence and strong will leads to wealth.” Grimdugan shook his head “What the **** are you talking about!” he said.

 

“Nevermind brother! But it is clear, that I, I am the luckiest of the Brathmordakin.” said Armakak as he polished the coin and handed it to Bili “Keep this to remember that fact.”

 

[!] Depiction of Bili and the Coin of Armakak